A “cruise liner-style” railway train left from Hualien Railway Station yesterday carrying more than 300 passengers on a one-day special tour of southeastern Taiwan.
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA, 台鐵) launched the first tourism-oriented train of its kind in an effort to attract tourists to use TRA trains for sightseeing.
Unlike the usual trains that only stop for a short time at each station, the “cruise train” makes longer stops at selected stations — in much the same way an international cruise liner does — a TRA press release said.
The train departed at 7:30am, making stops in Jian (吉安), Wanrong (萬榮), Dongli (東里) and Fuli (富里) before arriving in Taitung County’s Guanshan (關山).
The train also ran at speeds as low as 35kph to allow passengers to enjoy the landscapes and the vast flower fields along the railway line that runs through the East Rift Valley National Scenic Area.
Hualien Railway Station director Chen Yu-mou (陳裕謀) said the special train is a cheap way to tour the scenic East Rift Valley, as the price of a ticket for a round-trip tour between Hualien and Guanshan is only NT$332 for adults, NT$166 for children and NT$184 for people aged over 65.
The passengers yesterday had a three-hour stopover at Guanshan, where they had the opportunity for a bike tour or a visit to a local water park before boarding the same train for the return trip.
The TRA has also prepared cruise trains for the Taipei-Suao Line along the northeast coast and the Kaohsiung-Taitung South Link Line. The Suao cruise will depart on Aug. 19 and Aug. 30 from Taipei, while the South Link Line train will run from Kaohsiung on Aug. 23 and on Sept. 6.
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
RSS